Being Compromised, 1/2.
Title: Being Compromised
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: Hard R
Pairing: Clint/Natasha, beginnings of Ariadne/Arthur
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Spoilers/Warnings: Slight AU to the Avengers movie, post-Inception. Violence and torture mentioned, but not explicitly described. For the avengerkink meme prompt in round 3: Natasha wasn't able to beat Clint into normalcy. She has to perform inception.
Summary: *points to prompt* Yep. It's as complicated as that sounds.
One - Creating The Team
Clint Barton's eyes weren't Tesseract blue any longer, but his mind was still not his own. He looked at Natasha Romanoff as if she was a stranger, as if the history they had shared meant nothing at all. She sat beside him on the bed, his wrists and ankles restrained by leather, a blank expression on her face. Her back was ramrod straight, hair perfectly curled, tinted lip balm on her lips. Natasha wore her black nanomesh cat suit, less out of fear of what Clint might do, and more because she hadn't had any time to change into something more casual. It likely would have been a lost cause anyway, given the way he watched her.
It would never show outwardly, but her heart was breaking.
Natasha rose to leave, and Clint surged against the leathers, teeth bared at her. "You can't keep me here forever!" he shouted. "Loki will come for me. You have no idea what he's capable of, Agent." He gave her a slick, oily grin that was meant to put fear into her. Natasha had taught him that smile, and inside it felt like she was dying. "This world is out of time. As soon as the portal opens, your lives are forfeit."
She flashed him her own death's head grin, and he paused. Good. She was still capable of inspiring fear, even with Loki's influence coursing through his mind. "Let them come. They will bleed for all they've done."
From his cell, she went directly to speak with Nick Fury. He was in the impromptu morgue, staring at a covered body. There was a large bloodstain on the white sheet, directly over the chest. Natasha felt sick inside, as surely he did, though neither showed it. There wasn't time for that. The Hulk was loose, Thor had fallen, the helicarrier was damaged, and Loki was still at large. It didn't matter that she'd seduced his plan from him, that she'd tried to save them all. They'd lost, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Blades and hand to hand wouldn't work in this situation.
"How is he?" Fury asked, uncovered eye still fixed on the bloodstain.
"Not ours," Natasha replied shortly.
Fury looked up, clasping his hands behind his back. If he'd ever known of their relationship, he had never let on. Coulson definitely knew, but he also knew that it wasn't worth trying to destroy. Perhaps he told himself that affection for Clint kept her in line, kept her loyal to SHIELD and all that they were meant to do. Maybe that was just the party line they told any superiors who wondered why Clint and Natasha were so close. Coulson knew that as long as they did their jobs, as long as orders were followed to the letter, their association could continue unchecked.
"What are we going to do about that, Agent Romanoff?" he asked, voice without inflection. He knew that bellowing orders at her wouldn't work. She had been trained far too well and far too long for bully tactics.
"He's going to need work," Natasha replied. "It's not a lost cause, but Loki rearranged all of his thoughts and probably left traps behind if we got a psychologist in there with him."
Fury snorted. "He'd eat a shrink for breakfast. You think I believe any of the bullshit he feeds them at debriefs?"
Natasha's lips quirked into a fond smile at that. "No, sir."
"If he's salvageable, then it's got to be done by a professional who can really get in there and get that shit out of his head," Fury continued. He leveled his lone eye at her. "It's got to be done right and it's got to be done fast. If you could talk your way around what Loki's done, I'm sure you'd be in there now doing it."
"I can't," she admitted. If it was someone else, anyone else, perhaps she could get in there and try. If they had Selvig, maybe. But not Clint. It was far too personal, and she had been in there reacting to ghosts of the man she loved. Loki had warped him just enough that their shared history meant nothing right now. It was as keen as any blade between her ribs, a broken bone reset without anesthesia.
"Find someone who can," Fury instructed her. "We lost too many today." His eye fell to the white sheet, lips compressing into a thin line. He would regain his composure soon enough. He would use this, and Coulson would understand. He had told far too many lies of his own, and understood that sometimes there could be just barely a grain of truth behind the tales. That's what made it so believable, and what made him so effective as an agent, as well as Clint's and Natasha's handlers. Sometimes you had to bend the rules to get what you needed.
Natasha nodded sharply. "I know who to call."
***
With Cobb out of the dream share picture, Arthur had been more or less on his own. Cobb had slowly fallen apart since Mal's death, and out of respect for her and Professor Miles, Arthur had shored him up as best as he could. It wasn't until the Fischer job that he realized how far Cobb had deteriorated. Mal had tortured Arthur, but he'd swallowed down his rage at her out of respect for the grieving widower. He hadn't wanted to know the details of what had led to Mal's jump from the hotel window. Knowing would mean he had to act, and that would likely leave Philippa and James without both parents. Marie had taken care of the children while Cobb was traveling, looking in vain for something or someone that could clear his name, and Arthur privately thought that they were better off with their grandmother than with Cobb, who had grown more and more obsessed with an elusive dream that might not happen.
Except that it did.
In the two years since the inception, Cobb had apparently become the father he should have been to start with. He could hear it in Philippa and James' voices when he spoke with them over the phone, see it in their delighted faces when he visited them stateside. Marie had remained nearby, unwilling to be too far away in case something happened. She still didn't trust Cobb, and Arthur found it a very understandable sentiment.
There would always be whispers in the dream share community of what could and could not be done. Inception remained that elusive pipe dream in the community, despite his team's success. Everyone had kept their mouths shut about their part in the Fischer job, though it was obvious that it had worked. Following Maurice Fischer's funeral, Robert Fischer had slowly but surely dismantled his father's empire. He'd made a fortune doing it, and put forth very reasonable statements about taking the company in a new direction. There was emphasis on renewable energy sources and research, allowing Saito to snap up the choice bits that he wanted of Fischer-Morrow. If anyone suspected that Robert's entire mindset had been changed, that the demolition of Maurice Fischer's empire was not of Robert's conception, no one said a word. It went off without a hitch, and the man seemed to be better off for it.
Arthur drifted for a few months before picking up work again. Out of habit, he kept tabs on the people he knew. Eames and Yusuf returned to Mombasa, and Eames still was a major player in forges, thievery, and extraction throughout North Africa and parts of Europe. Ariadne completed her architecture degree and had picked up a job in an architecture firm. She'd sent him a few texts and called, feeling out if she could work in dream share again. They had spent six days together on the first level of the Fischer job waiting for the timer to run down, and Arthur had grown even closer to her since then. He had visited her in Paris, which she'd obviously enjoyed. They had a flirtatious relationship; he could have easily pushed things farther, but hadn't, and she seemed content to respect that boundary. It was force of habit on his part; alliances could be helpful, but very strong ties could become dangerous for everyone involved. He hadn't told her explicitly, but she seemed to understand it anyway.
He was in Jamaica when he received a phone call from an unknown number. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence, so he answered as he usually did. "Hello."
"Arthur," came a woman's voice. It took him a few moments to place it, and Arthur felt his blood run cold. "I have need of your expertise."
"Oh?" he asked, glad his voice was as smooth and calm as ever. He was instantly tense, losing the last few days' relaxation at once. So much for unwinding after a particularly risky extraction.
The assassin on the other end of the line didn't seem any happier to be talking with him than he was. "I have need of your special skills. Particularly arranging memories and removing suggestions that have been planted in the mind. Perhaps putting some new suggestions in."
"You're talking about inception," Arthur replied, sitting up abruptly. He wanted to snap at her that it was impossible, it couldn't be done. It would be a lie, but it wouldn't be the first time that he'd told that lie with a straight face. It was practically a requirement in his line of work, and part of the reason he didn't want to push things with Ariadne. She was still innocent, still capable of leading an ordinary life if he didn't keep circling her. Sooner or later, she would be dragged into his orbit, then all would really be lost for her.
"Perhaps," came the reply. Natalia sounded uncertain, which wasn't like her at all. "When can I meet you to discuss this? Time is of the essence."
"The cost..."
"Is no object," she interrupted smoothly. "I have SHIELD backing."
"Oh? Officially sanctioned?" he asked, intrigued. Who was he kidding? He was in this for the adrenaline rush as much as the money and the intellectual challenge.
"Any means necessary, and as fast as possible. It will be a challenge, and requires the best. I thought of you right away."
"Always full of compliments, Natalia," Arthur replied, smiling in spite of himself. Damn. He was caught in her web already, and he hadn't even heard the details of the job yet.
"It's not a compliment if it is truth," she replied, voice softening. "I'll be going by Natasha, by the way. Get whoever you need to work with you. We can come to you if we have to. It's important to me," she admitted. "I'm too close, and it matters. I need this to work," she added.
Well, he knew a good team, at least.
***
Ariadne was as delighted to work in dream share as Arthur had known she'd be, and appreciated the concern he had for her safety. She wasn't interested in international globetrotting while on the run, after all. Her interest was purely in building worlds and seeing how far she could take her skills. If Arthur really thought about it, SHIELD possibly would have a place for her. Natasha and the rest of her team would make sure she was protected from some of the less savory people in the dream share community. Arthur gave her a fond smile when she grasped his hand and tugged gently so she could kiss his cheek. He even turned his head slightly so that their lips brushed. He liked the flush that rose across her cheeks, and ignored Eames' smirk and Natasha's knowing grin. Yusuf remained as calm and quiet as ever, observing everything with detachment.
"What are we dealing with?" Yusuf asked, looking around the room. Arthur, Ariadne, and Eames were familiar to him, but he didn't recognize the others.
Natasha rose and passed out folders. "I am Natasha Romanoff of SHIELD, and I will be going in with you. This is classified information. For the moment, you are all vital consultants for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. You have the authorization to look through the contents of this dossier, some of which was redacted because you don't have a high enough clearance level. Depending on what we find when we go in, we may need to adjust that clearance level."
"Clearance level. As in national security?" Ariadne asked, her voice rising in curiosity. There was no fear there, and Arthur remembered how eager she had been to get involved in the Fischer job, regardless of its legality.
Natasha nodded and looked toward Nick Fury, who was standing at the head of the table in his dark clothing and long jacket, eye patch making him look even more forbidding. He remained silent, though he glowered at two other suited agents seated at the table. They hadn't introduced themselves, and Natasha made no move to do so. "Some of you might be aware of an incident in Stuttgart, Germany not too long ago." Arthur and Ariadne nodded, having seen footage on the news. Eames and Yusuf were unaware of what Natasha was referring to.
Opening a folder, she pointed to pictures in turn. "The timeline of events is this: Loki is an extradimensional being, one that for all intents and purposes has magic and the power of a god. He entered our world, destroying a base, taking an artifact of power, and placing several prominent agents and scientists under his direct mind control in the process. During the commotion in Stuttgart, a sizeable amount of iridium was stolen. He allowed himself to be captured in order to destabilize assets we have in play." Her hand came down over the main part of the folder she had put together in preparation for this, knowing that Arthur liked to be thorough and prepared before undertaking any job. "We got one of our own back, but he's still under Loki's control. Crude cognitive realignment didn't work."
"Cognitive realignment?" Eames echoed, flipping through the dossier, skipping over the blackened bits of Clint Barton's file.
"I knocked him on the head," Natasha said flatly. "It didn't work."
"If that's crude realignment," Yusuf began delicately, "what do you propose would be the finer method of getting your agent back?"
"This is where you come in," Natasha said, straightening. "We need Agent Barton back on our side and able to tell us what he knows of Loki's plans. It means breaking Loki's hold on his mind and reawakening his old self." She looked at each of them in turn, even the two agents that hadn't introduced themselves. "Everyone says that inception is impossible, but the mind is a very malleable thing. Entire lifetimes can be laid onto someone's mind, personalities grafted in, different triggers and behavior sets. If it can be done, this means the damage to Clint Barton can be undone. I know Arthur is one of the best out there in dream share. And he'll have recruited the best that he knows for this."
The former inception team all sat back and contemplated that for a moment. "You need an emotional underpinning," Eames began. "You're not going to be able to undo magic without something strong enough to motivate the bloke to hang onto whatever we try to incept him with. Sorry, agents," he said, waving slightly at the two agents beside him and Nick Fury, "but duty alone is not enough."
"There's more than that," Natasha said, her voice calm. Nothing in her outward demeanor betrayed the emotional turmoil that simmered beneath the surface. She was far too well trained for that. It was nothing she wanted to reveal in front of two agents she was sure were plants from the World Security Council. The Council had never approved of the Avengers Initiative, and they likely would not approve of dream share either.
Fuck that. They needed Clint back.
When Natasha didn't say anything further, Ariadne looked between all the agents, sure she was missing something important. "What more is there? We don't know much about his personal life, if that's the part blacked out here. What about love?"
It was only the smallest of tics in Natasha's eye, something that most people would miss. Eames saw it, as well as the way she eyed the two nameless agents as if they couldn't be trusted. Her body language was very carefully controlled, but he could see that of the other agents in the room, Nick Fury was the one to be trusted. "No, nothing that simple, I would think," he drawled. Natasha looked at him directly, no emotion evident on her impassive face, but he could tell that she was grateful for the distraction.
"Who's going in with us?" Arthur asked, shifting the conversation. He didn't trust the agents he hadn't already worked with. "Whichever angle we take, we still need to know who's going in so we can adjust the plan properly."
"Ever practical," Eames snarked, grinning in his direction, spinning slightly in his seat.
"Someone has to be," Arthur replied, voice even.
Ariadne was going through the un-redacted portions of Clint's personnel file. "Where does he live?" she asked, cutting in before Eames could say something else.
"That's not relevant," Natasha replied. Her gaze had fallen onto the two nameless agents.
Ariadne shut the file as she shook her head. "I'm the architect, and there is a definite role in the atmosphere of each location that I'll have to build. In order to bring him back to who he used to be, I'm going to have to know what to build toward. I need to know who he is now. So yes, it is very relevant." Sensing that there was tension between Natasha and the two nameless agents, she leaned directly toward them from her place across the table. "You two. I didn't get your names."
One gave her a stony glare, and the other remained impassive. "We are here in an observer's capacity from the Council."
"Meaning you don't have names?" Ariadne asked. At the silence she received, she made a noise of frustration. "Then what are you doing here if you're useless to the planning? If this is so important and time sensitive, get the hell out and let us work. The more of my time you waste, the less I get done."
Before either of the two could reply, Nick Fury swooped in. "You heard the lady, gentlemen. You can report to the Council that steps are being taken to avert catastrophe."
The Council agent that had spoken before didn't even flinch. "You don't have authority to-"
"Oh for Christ's sake!" Ariadne snapped, banging the table with the flat of her hand. "Do you know Agent Barton?" She paused long enough for their silence to be an obvious answer. "No. Do you know Loki?" Another pause, and all she received was a stony stare. "No. Do you know what we need to do to get inside his head and rearrange its contents? I know that's a no. Get out of our way and have your pissing contest elsewhere!"
Eames chuckled and picked up his folder as Fury hovered over the two Council agents to intimidate them into leaving. "I missed you, Ariadne. I really did."
She smiled and picked up her own folder. "I'm still not going to bed with you."
"Pity," he remarked, tsking and smirking in Arthur's direction. "I wager I'd be far more creative and imaginative."
The two agents reluctantly stood under Fury's glare. One muttered something that vaguely sounded like The Council will hear of this before stalking out.
"Not even in your dreams," she said sweetly, turning to a particular page in Barton's dossier before turning toward Natasha. "There should be a place that he goes to often. Even with all the blacked out areas," she said, pointing to them. "A safe place."
"I can show you where he goes," Natasha said once the door was shut. "Whether he feels safe there or not, you'll have to decide for yourself."
"But-"
"I know a lot about him, he knows a lot about me," she interrupted, not unkindly. "But there are some things we simply do not discuss. Ever."
"So what is it between you two if not love?" Eames asked, openly curious.
"Love is for children," she told him in flat tones. "I owe him a debt."
"Mmm. Powerful indeed. We can work with that."
"You'd better," Fury snapped. "We don't have time for bullshit."
"That is an attitude we can work with," Eames replied with a grin.
"To save on time, we'll need to attack this from different angles," Arthur began, clicking open his pen and opening one of his notebooks to a fresh page. "There's the emotion, duty, and debts, of course. There's also eliminating the hold that Loki has on him."
"I'd want to see his blood work," Yusuf added, leaning forward and truly participating for the first time. "I'd need to see if there are changes within his chemistry, anything different for my own formulae to interact with."
"I'll take you around," Natasha said to Ariadne. "We'll start now, give you a feel for what you have to work with."
Arthur and Eames were left to start debating plans of attack, what sorts of footage they would need to see in order to pull apart the differences between Clint originally, and after his "possession" by Loki. Yusuf was escorted to the medical wing of the helicarrier, and Natasha brought Ariadne to Clint's official quarters on the carrier.
It was bare bones, hardly anything personal of note in it. Changes of clothing, three books and a blank notebook were all the contents in the bunk. Spare weaponry was stored in the armory. Ariadne took in the bleak, empty atmosphere and then looked to Natasha. "This isn't where he feels safe. This isn't him."
Natasha was leaning against the wall. She could remember the last few times they'd been in this particular bunk together, how they had claimed the space as theirs. It had been fevered kisses, smashing lips and teeth and tongues together, his hand sliding the zipper down on her suit and mouthing the exposed skin. It had been her dropping gracefully to her knees and taking him into her mouth to get him off quickly so he could feel like himself again, not some numbered agent doing something out of duty.
"This is just a place," she told Ariadne finally. "Mine doesn't look that much different." Her room didn't even have books in it.
Ariadne blew out a breath. "Where on this thing does he go?"
Looking up toward the vent, Natasha's lips quirked into a smile. "I don't know where all his perches are. But there are a few I do know of, some drops where we leave notes for one another. Personal codes."
It felt like things were slowly slotting into place. "You're not supposed to have more than a working relationship," Ariadne said slowly. "Just fellow agents working together."
The look Natasha gave her was piercing. "What matters is the mission, getting it done and reporting back to superior officers. Not hearts, souls, or feelings, not anything that can be manipulated or compromised."
Ariadne reached out and touched Natasha's arm gently, suppressing the I'm sorry that she wanted to say. Ariadne couldn't even begin to guess what Natasha had to sacrifice in her line of work. "Let's see some of those drops, then. I'll keep all of that in mind."
Natasha gave her a sharp nod, then quickly moved through the helicarrier. Ariadne soon lost track of where they were going, which she assumed was rather the point. They paused in what seemed like random places: a supply closet that had a vent in the ceiling and sturdy shelving that could be used like a ladder for someone with acrobatic skills, an empty office near the engine room, a corner of the range where they used to practice. "Out of the way spots," Ariadne commented. "Places no one would see him or notice him. He likes to go unnoticed. To see everything without being seen."
"His codename is Hawkeye," Natasha replied, a ghost of a smile haunting her lips.
"Oh? What's yours?"
"Black Widow."
Ariadne blinked in surprise, then took a closer look at her. When she saw the hourglass design on Natasha's belt buckle, she laughed. "You enjoy that, don't you? Playing off the expectations they have of you? Making fools of them."
Lips quirked up into a smile, Natasha gave her a nod. "I would imagine that you enjoy the same thing."
"I'm a petite woman in the male-dominated world of design. I am very good at what I do, and I refuse to be overlooked." She flashed Natasha an almost playful smile. "I can be a bitch if I have to be."
Natasha laughed a little, startled in spite of herself. "Architecture is very difficult field to excel at. If you're working with Arthur, you must be top notch."
"So I hear," Ariadne replied with a half smile. Arthur had taught her what he knew of dream architecture and gave her an overview of its uses and history in scant detail. The rest she had played with on her own when translating the designs in her head to the actual dreams, and she had always suspected there was far more she could do if she wasn't constrained by real world physics. "Have you known him long?"
"There was a job a few years back. I was there in a real world capacity, he was there in a dream world capacity." Natasha shrugged a little, starting to lead her from the range. "When it was clear neither of us were there to kill the other, we started discussing the jobs we were actually there for. They wound up dovetailing rather nicely, actually. Still, I don't think he appreciates knowing what I do for a living."
"A SHIELD agent, you mean?"
"Covert operations mean a great many things," Natasha replied, heading back to the conference room. "It's usually classified."
"I noticed from Agent Barton's file," Ariadne remarked.
"Mine is thicker and has a lot more redacted," Natasha admitted. "This place is not where he would be most comfortable, but there wouldn't be time enough to really show you where he would prefer to go when not on the helicarrier."
"There would be if it was under PASIV," Ariadne pointed out reasonably. "Five minutes can feel like an hour or more in the dream. As long as it doesn't make you sick, I can change the dream around you to shape it to what you remember of the place. I've learned how to keep the more aggressive projections at bay while doing something like that."
Natasha made a detour along the way, though Ariadne was so lost that she didn't even notice it. "This would be perfect for what you need to do."
***
While Natasha and Ariadne were hooked up via PASIV, Agent Sitwell watching over their sleeping bodies, Arthur, Eames and Agent Maria Hill went through the surveillance footage that SHIELD had collected. She was scarily efficient, and didn't have any response to Eames' comment that she was like a female version of Arthur. She kept scrolling through the video footage of Loki's arrival that had been archived to SHIELD's servers. Eames stopped joking when he saw the scepter touch Clint's chest. "Wait, wait. Back that up and turn up the volume, will you? He says something there."
"We won't have any better audio. The original data stream was corrupted soon after the evacuation protocols were put into place."
Eames leaned closer and watched Loki's lips as best as he could. "You have a part? What in the bloody hell does that mean?"
"No idea," Maria replied, keeping frustration from her tone. "He showed up and ten minutes later the entire place fell apart. He next pops up on the radar in Stuttgart, and we don't have a clear lead on where they took Dr. Selvig or any of our men until they came to attack the helicarrier."
She queued up the surveillance footage from the carrier, and Eames tracked all of Clint's movements carefully. "He never once looked into the containment cells to get Loki. That wasn't his aim."
"He didn't go for the armory or the archives, either," Arthur noted.
"It was another distraction, but this time he got caught," Maria told them. "He won't tell us a thing now. That's what you're here for."
"It'll be a bloody miracle," Eames sighed, leaning back in his chair as he caught sight of Clint and Natasha beginning to fight on the screen. "Christ. He's trying to kill her."
"They had worked together out in the field, with one of the highest clearance rates of our agents." Under different circumstances, Maria would have said that with pride. "He's come back from impossible conditions and has always been ready to head back out for more. It didn't matter if we didn't know what he was facing. He was ready to do it."
Eames nodded absently, then looked over at Arthur. "Duty is good as a foundation for bringing it all back, but I'm willing to bet that's what Loki used. You can see it in how he moves there, fighting comrades as if they were enemies. His loyalties shifted to Loki, that part or whatever he was talking about. Distance isn't the key with that scepter, it's the command itself. So if the command was to take part in Loki's plans, then that's the driving force in his mind right now."
"We need to replace that. It really does need to be inception."
"Afraid so."
Maria looked from one to the other, remaining silent as they worked it out. "Director Fury instructed me to help you with whatever you need. Agents you can work with, access to high clearance levels, getting you whatever you need."
"Ariadne's working on the locations, I'm sure," Arthur told Maria. He looked over his notes with a faint air of discontent. "Usually we have months to prepare and gather as much information as possible before attempting something this dangerous. Extracting information on Loki's plans is one thing. That can be done. But to reverse whatever Loki did to him, not even knowing for sure what was done in the first place..." Arthur tapped his pen on his Moleskine, lips compressing unhappily. "I know we'll all do what we can, but I don't want to make any guarantees."
"Nothing is an exact science," Maria told him with a nod. "But whatever of him that you can save, do so. He's a good agent. I know he'd do whatever it took to save anyone else on this carrier if he could. He couldn't, and wouldn't, guarantee a damn thing," she added with a faint smile. "It used to drive Director Fury crazy, but he got results. He brought in rogue agents, talked down the wary, and could drive anyone to drink. His heart was always in the right place. He knew how people worked."
Arthur and Eames stared at Maria. "That's why he was taken, then," Arthur murmured. "Because he would know the people that were necessary for your operation. He would know who would be able to stop him. Take them out of the equation, and who would stop Loki?"
"Right now? Nobody."
"So we have motive as to why he was picked," Eames said, watching the footage on the small screen. "It doesn't give us a good enough handle on how to get him back."
Ariadne and Natasha returned to the conference room at that point, PASIV in hand. "Well, that's where I come in," she told them confidently. "I can at least create locations where he will feel comfortable. With the amount of time we have," she continued, putting the PASIV on the conference room table, "I'm not going to be able to build models or sketches. I will have to do the construction as we go, so by necessity it's got to be a one level job."
"That's not going to work for an inception!" Eames protested. "The idea won't be nuanced enough, won't have the time to really develop or permeate his consciousness."
"I've got the locations," Ariadne repeated, tapping her temple. "And I can build it as fast as we need it and probably without tipping him off that we're in there. What I can probably do is give the appearance of multiple levels."
Arthur stared at her. "Wait. Can you do that?"
"She tried it on me," Natasha offered. "I have no idea what she was doing but it felt rather impressive at the time."
"It's going by half steps, using the dream architecture and symbolism," Ariadne told Arthur, eyes lighting up as she spoke. She was absolutely certain of what she could do, and it showed. "I can make it work."
"But the idea, then," Arthur said, looking to Eames. "It has to be simple enough to grasp in a single level."
"What? Like be your own man?" the forger snarked.
"Why not?" Ariadne asked, pulling out the sketchbook from her abandoned place at the table. She opened it up to a blank page and turned it sideways so that she could use the longer length to demonstrate what she meant. "Here. If I draw it like this to try to show you what I'm thinking of doing..."
Starting at the left hand side of the page, she sketched out a straight line with a few spiky lines attached to the end of it. "We recreate the helicarrier here, damage and the dead, all of it." Natasha and Maria looked at her intently as she drew, not sure where she was going with this. "Then Eames can forge Loki," she continued, ignoring his startled "What now?" as she drew a large circle on her timeline. "This will be the point where I start drawing him down further. It's got to go by half steps, because you'll need me to be continually building and creating the labyrinth as we go. There can't be multiple dreamers for distinct levels."
Ariadne drew a sloping line downward from her circle. "If we stage a secondary attack on the carrier, as if Loki was coming back for him, that's how we can draw him down in a natural way, slide him further and deeper into this dream, using the descent into the helicarrier or a fall of some kind to drop his consciousness."
"Start planting the idea that Loki doesn't want or need him," Eames said, picking up on her intent right away. Arthur took notes in his cramped, cribbed writing, brows furrowing in thought as they spoke.
" Loki has said he's important," Arthur pointed out.
"They're in separate places now. Things could change. Perhaps you could go in first and try to extract what the relationship was like," Ariadne suggested. "But from what I've seen, the kind of person he was, there is no way Loki could have taken him over without a huge whammy of magic."
"Whammy?" Maria asked, lips quirking in spite of herself.
"However you would describe a huge dose," Ariadne returned, grinning. "Because from what I've seen of Natasha's memories and heard about him, that man is even more headstrong than the ones I've worked with, let me tell you."
Arthur snorted, though it was easy to see the smile gracing his lips as he looked up at her. "How else can I keep up with you?"
"Was I talking about you?" she teased back, grinning. She tapped the sketchbook to refocus their attention. "So, there can be a literal drop from the carrier, down someplace. I don't know, pick something. No one knows where Loki is, and he's all but said he split his forces so that he wouldn't know where anything is. I can build something up here," she added squiggle lines to the slope, then drew a line and leveling it out. "This is where we stage a rescue and counter attack by Loki, who will graciously let us take him because he's useless. Or something to that effect. I'll let the master figure that one out."
Eames chuckled and refrained from making a comment, appreciating the planning. She had taken such a backseat during the Fischer job planning stages, absorbing the nuances of dream share. He had done most of the work with the actual inception development, but it seemed as though she had a good feel for people and a knack for plotting.
It was good that she did, in case plans had to be changed on the fly like they were in the Fischer job. They would have only one chance to do this, and only one level to do it in. He didn't know much about Loki's personality, but he could see that the man was charismatic. There was an underlying desperation and rage there, and he would have to channel more of his own personality than usual for this.
"Natasha will have to bring him somewhere safe," Ariadne continued, making her straight line a wavy one. "At least, a place he should feel safe, really driving that point home. Once we get there, we pull him into the dream a little more, like a half step into the layer," she said, drawing her pen down again at an angle. "We could recreate a scenario he has been through before. The thing is to reinforce that no matter what Loki's done with him, he was just being used. He should hate that."
"And if he doesn't?" Arthur asked, curious. She was making this up as she went along, but so far the overall theme seemed to be holding together well.
"We force the choice, then," Ariadne replied, drawing two diverging paths from that point in her timeline. "Here," she said, tapping the straight line, "is where he seems to be responding to the suggestion that he's worthless to Loki and can be his own man. His thoughts should be his own, not someone else's to control. He should have leeway. The underlying theme, if it's worked so far, is that his mind is his own to control."
Ariadne drew over her downward sloping line. "If that isn't working, we take him down another half step, send him somewhere else that should feel safe. Do it again. Keep reinforcing that he's a free agent, has willpower, however you want to refine that concept. While this is technically all one layer of dreaming, I can put in enough nuances and so that this would be the equivalent of three levels in. It should be deep enough to really let the idea take."
"Aside from depth," Eames pointed out, "the concept should resonate well enough with who he used to be that whatever threads of control Loki have are undone. Or at least loosened."
"Should is not the same as will," Arthur pointed out. He turned to Maria. "You'll still need safeguards in case this doesn't work. If we haven't erased Loki's hold on his mind, there's no telling what else we might uncover."
"You're assuming there are traps," Natasha said quietly. She and Maria exchanged a glance. Natasha's was questioning, and Maria nodded. "There are places around the world, different divisions or secret projects. If there are traps laid in, there are always ways to trigger them. Code phrases, particular people."
"You know how it's done, then," Arthur said, watching her closely.
"Yes. I know how they make and remake you, layer on personalities or lifetimes, change who you are and what you know about yourself. It can be done."
"You'd said that earlier," Eames commented. He waited a beat. "It was done to you."
"Repeatedly," Natasha confirmed. "Triggers are multisensory, usually. Pieces of music with code phrases on top of them. Visual cues along with different phrases. Sometimes they use different drugs to help solidify the triggers and personality overlays. There's a science to it, and it's been perfected over many years."
"Then do we have to be careful not to trigger you as we try to untangle Barton's mind?" Arthur asked frankly.
"My mind has been cleared out," Natasha replied with a sharp shake of her head. "I'm myself, and have been for years. I've tried using the old triggers on myself," she continued, ignoring Maria's incredulous look, "and nothing's happened. Most of those lifetimes are still there, lingering like ghosts, but not very clear. I hope the same can be said of Clint's actions."
"I think the framework is sound," Eames told them. He looked to the footage of Loki's initial appearance and attack, the sallow skin and hollow eyes, the way he tripped over his feet and looked almost sick. "I have an idea."
***
***
To Chapter Two - Time To Fly
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: Hard R
Pairing: Clint/Natasha, beginnings of Ariadne/Arthur
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Spoilers/Warnings: Slight AU to the Avengers movie, post-Inception. Violence and torture mentioned, but not explicitly described. For the avengerkink meme prompt in round 3: Natasha wasn't able to beat Clint into normalcy. She has to perform inception.
Summary: *points to prompt* Yep. It's as complicated as that sounds.
One - Creating The Team
Clint Barton's eyes weren't Tesseract blue any longer, but his mind was still not his own. He looked at Natasha Romanoff as if she was a stranger, as if the history they had shared meant nothing at all. She sat beside him on the bed, his wrists and ankles restrained by leather, a blank expression on her face. Her back was ramrod straight, hair perfectly curled, tinted lip balm on her lips. Natasha wore her black nanomesh cat suit, less out of fear of what Clint might do, and more because she hadn't had any time to change into something more casual. It likely would have been a lost cause anyway, given the way he watched her.
It would never show outwardly, but her heart was breaking.
Natasha rose to leave, and Clint surged against the leathers, teeth bared at her. "You can't keep me here forever!" he shouted. "Loki will come for me. You have no idea what he's capable of, Agent." He gave her a slick, oily grin that was meant to put fear into her. Natasha had taught him that smile, and inside it felt like she was dying. "This world is out of time. As soon as the portal opens, your lives are forfeit."
She flashed him her own death's head grin, and he paused. Good. She was still capable of inspiring fear, even with Loki's influence coursing through his mind. "Let them come. They will bleed for all they've done."
From his cell, she went directly to speak with Nick Fury. He was in the impromptu morgue, staring at a covered body. There was a large bloodstain on the white sheet, directly over the chest. Natasha felt sick inside, as surely he did, though neither showed it. There wasn't time for that. The Hulk was loose, Thor had fallen, the helicarrier was damaged, and Loki was still at large. It didn't matter that she'd seduced his plan from him, that she'd tried to save them all. They'd lost, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Blades and hand to hand wouldn't work in this situation.
"How is he?" Fury asked, uncovered eye still fixed on the bloodstain.
"Not ours," Natasha replied shortly.
Fury looked up, clasping his hands behind his back. If he'd ever known of their relationship, he had never let on. Coulson definitely knew, but he also knew that it wasn't worth trying to destroy. Perhaps he told himself that affection for Clint kept her in line, kept her loyal to SHIELD and all that they were meant to do. Maybe that was just the party line they told any superiors who wondered why Clint and Natasha were so close. Coulson knew that as long as they did their jobs, as long as orders were followed to the letter, their association could continue unchecked.
"What are we going to do about that, Agent Romanoff?" he asked, voice without inflection. He knew that bellowing orders at her wouldn't work. She had been trained far too well and far too long for bully tactics.
"He's going to need work," Natasha replied. "It's not a lost cause, but Loki rearranged all of his thoughts and probably left traps behind if we got a psychologist in there with him."
Fury snorted. "He'd eat a shrink for breakfast. You think I believe any of the bullshit he feeds them at debriefs?"
Natasha's lips quirked into a fond smile at that. "No, sir."
"If he's salvageable, then it's got to be done by a professional who can really get in there and get that shit out of his head," Fury continued. He leveled his lone eye at her. "It's got to be done right and it's got to be done fast. If you could talk your way around what Loki's done, I'm sure you'd be in there now doing it."
"I can't," she admitted. If it was someone else, anyone else, perhaps she could get in there and try. If they had Selvig, maybe. But not Clint. It was far too personal, and she had been in there reacting to ghosts of the man she loved. Loki had warped him just enough that their shared history meant nothing right now. It was as keen as any blade between her ribs, a broken bone reset without anesthesia.
"Find someone who can," Fury instructed her. "We lost too many today." His eye fell to the white sheet, lips compressing into a thin line. He would regain his composure soon enough. He would use this, and Coulson would understand. He had told far too many lies of his own, and understood that sometimes there could be just barely a grain of truth behind the tales. That's what made it so believable, and what made him so effective as an agent, as well as Clint's and Natasha's handlers. Sometimes you had to bend the rules to get what you needed.
Natasha nodded sharply. "I know who to call."
***
With Cobb out of the dream share picture, Arthur had been more or less on his own. Cobb had slowly fallen apart since Mal's death, and out of respect for her and Professor Miles, Arthur had shored him up as best as he could. It wasn't until the Fischer job that he realized how far Cobb had deteriorated. Mal had tortured Arthur, but he'd swallowed down his rage at her out of respect for the grieving widower. He hadn't wanted to know the details of what had led to Mal's jump from the hotel window. Knowing would mean he had to act, and that would likely leave Philippa and James without both parents. Marie had taken care of the children while Cobb was traveling, looking in vain for something or someone that could clear his name, and Arthur privately thought that they were better off with their grandmother than with Cobb, who had grown more and more obsessed with an elusive dream that might not happen.
Except that it did.
In the two years since the inception, Cobb had apparently become the father he should have been to start with. He could hear it in Philippa and James' voices when he spoke with them over the phone, see it in their delighted faces when he visited them stateside. Marie had remained nearby, unwilling to be too far away in case something happened. She still didn't trust Cobb, and Arthur found it a very understandable sentiment.
There would always be whispers in the dream share community of what could and could not be done. Inception remained that elusive pipe dream in the community, despite his team's success. Everyone had kept their mouths shut about their part in the Fischer job, though it was obvious that it had worked. Following Maurice Fischer's funeral, Robert Fischer had slowly but surely dismantled his father's empire. He'd made a fortune doing it, and put forth very reasonable statements about taking the company in a new direction. There was emphasis on renewable energy sources and research, allowing Saito to snap up the choice bits that he wanted of Fischer-Morrow. If anyone suspected that Robert's entire mindset had been changed, that the demolition of Maurice Fischer's empire was not of Robert's conception, no one said a word. It went off without a hitch, and the man seemed to be better off for it.
Arthur drifted for a few months before picking up work again. Out of habit, he kept tabs on the people he knew. Eames and Yusuf returned to Mombasa, and Eames still was a major player in forges, thievery, and extraction throughout North Africa and parts of Europe. Ariadne completed her architecture degree and had picked up a job in an architecture firm. She'd sent him a few texts and called, feeling out if she could work in dream share again. They had spent six days together on the first level of the Fischer job waiting for the timer to run down, and Arthur had grown even closer to her since then. He had visited her in Paris, which she'd obviously enjoyed. They had a flirtatious relationship; he could have easily pushed things farther, but hadn't, and she seemed content to respect that boundary. It was force of habit on his part; alliances could be helpful, but very strong ties could become dangerous for everyone involved. He hadn't told her explicitly, but she seemed to understand it anyway.
He was in Jamaica when he received a phone call from an unknown number. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence, so he answered as he usually did. "Hello."
"Arthur," came a woman's voice. It took him a few moments to place it, and Arthur felt his blood run cold. "I have need of your expertise."
"Oh?" he asked, glad his voice was as smooth and calm as ever. He was instantly tense, losing the last few days' relaxation at once. So much for unwinding after a particularly risky extraction.
The assassin on the other end of the line didn't seem any happier to be talking with him than he was. "I have need of your special skills. Particularly arranging memories and removing suggestions that have been planted in the mind. Perhaps putting some new suggestions in."
"You're talking about inception," Arthur replied, sitting up abruptly. He wanted to snap at her that it was impossible, it couldn't be done. It would be a lie, but it wouldn't be the first time that he'd told that lie with a straight face. It was practically a requirement in his line of work, and part of the reason he didn't want to push things with Ariadne. She was still innocent, still capable of leading an ordinary life if he didn't keep circling her. Sooner or later, she would be dragged into his orbit, then all would really be lost for her.
"Perhaps," came the reply. Natalia sounded uncertain, which wasn't like her at all. "When can I meet you to discuss this? Time is of the essence."
"The cost..."
"Is no object," she interrupted smoothly. "I have SHIELD backing."
"Oh? Officially sanctioned?" he asked, intrigued. Who was he kidding? He was in this for the adrenaline rush as much as the money and the intellectual challenge.
"Any means necessary, and as fast as possible. It will be a challenge, and requires the best. I thought of you right away."
"Always full of compliments, Natalia," Arthur replied, smiling in spite of himself. Damn. He was caught in her web already, and he hadn't even heard the details of the job yet.
"It's not a compliment if it is truth," she replied, voice softening. "I'll be going by Natasha, by the way. Get whoever you need to work with you. We can come to you if we have to. It's important to me," she admitted. "I'm too close, and it matters. I need this to work," she added.
Well, he knew a good team, at least.
***
Ariadne was as delighted to work in dream share as Arthur had known she'd be, and appreciated the concern he had for her safety. She wasn't interested in international globetrotting while on the run, after all. Her interest was purely in building worlds and seeing how far she could take her skills. If Arthur really thought about it, SHIELD possibly would have a place for her. Natasha and the rest of her team would make sure she was protected from some of the less savory people in the dream share community. Arthur gave her a fond smile when she grasped his hand and tugged gently so she could kiss his cheek. He even turned his head slightly so that their lips brushed. He liked the flush that rose across her cheeks, and ignored Eames' smirk and Natasha's knowing grin. Yusuf remained as calm and quiet as ever, observing everything with detachment.
"What are we dealing with?" Yusuf asked, looking around the room. Arthur, Ariadne, and Eames were familiar to him, but he didn't recognize the others.
Natasha rose and passed out folders. "I am Natasha Romanoff of SHIELD, and I will be going in with you. This is classified information. For the moment, you are all vital consultants for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. You have the authorization to look through the contents of this dossier, some of which was redacted because you don't have a high enough clearance level. Depending on what we find when we go in, we may need to adjust that clearance level."
"Clearance level. As in national security?" Ariadne asked, her voice rising in curiosity. There was no fear there, and Arthur remembered how eager she had been to get involved in the Fischer job, regardless of its legality.
Natasha nodded and looked toward Nick Fury, who was standing at the head of the table in his dark clothing and long jacket, eye patch making him look even more forbidding. He remained silent, though he glowered at two other suited agents seated at the table. They hadn't introduced themselves, and Natasha made no move to do so. "Some of you might be aware of an incident in Stuttgart, Germany not too long ago." Arthur and Ariadne nodded, having seen footage on the news. Eames and Yusuf were unaware of what Natasha was referring to.
Opening a folder, she pointed to pictures in turn. "The timeline of events is this: Loki is an extradimensional being, one that for all intents and purposes has magic and the power of a god. He entered our world, destroying a base, taking an artifact of power, and placing several prominent agents and scientists under his direct mind control in the process. During the commotion in Stuttgart, a sizeable amount of iridium was stolen. He allowed himself to be captured in order to destabilize assets we have in play." Her hand came down over the main part of the folder she had put together in preparation for this, knowing that Arthur liked to be thorough and prepared before undertaking any job. "We got one of our own back, but he's still under Loki's control. Crude cognitive realignment didn't work."
"Cognitive realignment?" Eames echoed, flipping through the dossier, skipping over the blackened bits of Clint Barton's file.
"I knocked him on the head," Natasha said flatly. "It didn't work."
"If that's crude realignment," Yusuf began delicately, "what do you propose would be the finer method of getting your agent back?"
"This is where you come in," Natasha said, straightening. "We need Agent Barton back on our side and able to tell us what he knows of Loki's plans. It means breaking Loki's hold on his mind and reawakening his old self." She looked at each of them in turn, even the two agents that hadn't introduced themselves. "Everyone says that inception is impossible, but the mind is a very malleable thing. Entire lifetimes can be laid onto someone's mind, personalities grafted in, different triggers and behavior sets. If it can be done, this means the damage to Clint Barton can be undone. I know Arthur is one of the best out there in dream share. And he'll have recruited the best that he knows for this."
The former inception team all sat back and contemplated that for a moment. "You need an emotional underpinning," Eames began. "You're not going to be able to undo magic without something strong enough to motivate the bloke to hang onto whatever we try to incept him with. Sorry, agents," he said, waving slightly at the two agents beside him and Nick Fury, "but duty alone is not enough."
"There's more than that," Natasha said, her voice calm. Nothing in her outward demeanor betrayed the emotional turmoil that simmered beneath the surface. She was far too well trained for that. It was nothing she wanted to reveal in front of two agents she was sure were plants from the World Security Council. The Council had never approved of the Avengers Initiative, and they likely would not approve of dream share either.
Fuck that. They needed Clint back.
When Natasha didn't say anything further, Ariadne looked between all the agents, sure she was missing something important. "What more is there? We don't know much about his personal life, if that's the part blacked out here. What about love?"
It was only the smallest of tics in Natasha's eye, something that most people would miss. Eames saw it, as well as the way she eyed the two nameless agents as if they couldn't be trusted. Her body language was very carefully controlled, but he could see that of the other agents in the room, Nick Fury was the one to be trusted. "No, nothing that simple, I would think," he drawled. Natasha looked at him directly, no emotion evident on her impassive face, but he could tell that she was grateful for the distraction.
"Who's going in with us?" Arthur asked, shifting the conversation. He didn't trust the agents he hadn't already worked with. "Whichever angle we take, we still need to know who's going in so we can adjust the plan properly."
"Ever practical," Eames snarked, grinning in his direction, spinning slightly in his seat.
"Someone has to be," Arthur replied, voice even.
Ariadne was going through the un-redacted portions of Clint's personnel file. "Where does he live?" she asked, cutting in before Eames could say something else.
"That's not relevant," Natasha replied. Her gaze had fallen onto the two nameless agents.
Ariadne shut the file as she shook her head. "I'm the architect, and there is a definite role in the atmosphere of each location that I'll have to build. In order to bring him back to who he used to be, I'm going to have to know what to build toward. I need to know who he is now. So yes, it is very relevant." Sensing that there was tension between Natasha and the two nameless agents, she leaned directly toward them from her place across the table. "You two. I didn't get your names."
One gave her a stony glare, and the other remained impassive. "We are here in an observer's capacity from the Council."
"Meaning you don't have names?" Ariadne asked. At the silence she received, she made a noise of frustration. "Then what are you doing here if you're useless to the planning? If this is so important and time sensitive, get the hell out and let us work. The more of my time you waste, the less I get done."
Before either of the two could reply, Nick Fury swooped in. "You heard the lady, gentlemen. You can report to the Council that steps are being taken to avert catastrophe."
The Council agent that had spoken before didn't even flinch. "You don't have authority to-"
"Oh for Christ's sake!" Ariadne snapped, banging the table with the flat of her hand. "Do you know Agent Barton?" She paused long enough for their silence to be an obvious answer. "No. Do you know Loki?" Another pause, and all she received was a stony stare. "No. Do you know what we need to do to get inside his head and rearrange its contents? I know that's a no. Get out of our way and have your pissing contest elsewhere!"
Eames chuckled and picked up his folder as Fury hovered over the two Council agents to intimidate them into leaving. "I missed you, Ariadne. I really did."
She smiled and picked up her own folder. "I'm still not going to bed with you."
"Pity," he remarked, tsking and smirking in Arthur's direction. "I wager I'd be far more creative and imaginative."
The two agents reluctantly stood under Fury's glare. One muttered something that vaguely sounded like The Council will hear of this before stalking out.
"Not even in your dreams," she said sweetly, turning to a particular page in Barton's dossier before turning toward Natasha. "There should be a place that he goes to often. Even with all the blacked out areas," she said, pointing to them. "A safe place."
"I can show you where he goes," Natasha said once the door was shut. "Whether he feels safe there or not, you'll have to decide for yourself."
"But-"
"I know a lot about him, he knows a lot about me," she interrupted, not unkindly. "But there are some things we simply do not discuss. Ever."
"So what is it between you two if not love?" Eames asked, openly curious.
"Love is for children," she told him in flat tones. "I owe him a debt."
"Mmm. Powerful indeed. We can work with that."
"You'd better," Fury snapped. "We don't have time for bullshit."
"That is an attitude we can work with," Eames replied with a grin.
"To save on time, we'll need to attack this from different angles," Arthur began, clicking open his pen and opening one of his notebooks to a fresh page. "There's the emotion, duty, and debts, of course. There's also eliminating the hold that Loki has on him."
"I'd want to see his blood work," Yusuf added, leaning forward and truly participating for the first time. "I'd need to see if there are changes within his chemistry, anything different for my own formulae to interact with."
"I'll take you around," Natasha said to Ariadne. "We'll start now, give you a feel for what you have to work with."
Arthur and Eames were left to start debating plans of attack, what sorts of footage they would need to see in order to pull apart the differences between Clint originally, and after his "possession" by Loki. Yusuf was escorted to the medical wing of the helicarrier, and Natasha brought Ariadne to Clint's official quarters on the carrier.
It was bare bones, hardly anything personal of note in it. Changes of clothing, three books and a blank notebook were all the contents in the bunk. Spare weaponry was stored in the armory. Ariadne took in the bleak, empty atmosphere and then looked to Natasha. "This isn't where he feels safe. This isn't him."
Natasha was leaning against the wall. She could remember the last few times they'd been in this particular bunk together, how they had claimed the space as theirs. It had been fevered kisses, smashing lips and teeth and tongues together, his hand sliding the zipper down on her suit and mouthing the exposed skin. It had been her dropping gracefully to her knees and taking him into her mouth to get him off quickly so he could feel like himself again, not some numbered agent doing something out of duty.
"This is just a place," she told Ariadne finally. "Mine doesn't look that much different." Her room didn't even have books in it.
Ariadne blew out a breath. "Where on this thing does he go?"
Looking up toward the vent, Natasha's lips quirked into a smile. "I don't know where all his perches are. But there are a few I do know of, some drops where we leave notes for one another. Personal codes."
It felt like things were slowly slotting into place. "You're not supposed to have more than a working relationship," Ariadne said slowly. "Just fellow agents working together."
The look Natasha gave her was piercing. "What matters is the mission, getting it done and reporting back to superior officers. Not hearts, souls, or feelings, not anything that can be manipulated or compromised."
Ariadne reached out and touched Natasha's arm gently, suppressing the I'm sorry that she wanted to say. Ariadne couldn't even begin to guess what Natasha had to sacrifice in her line of work. "Let's see some of those drops, then. I'll keep all of that in mind."
Natasha gave her a sharp nod, then quickly moved through the helicarrier. Ariadne soon lost track of where they were going, which she assumed was rather the point. They paused in what seemed like random places: a supply closet that had a vent in the ceiling and sturdy shelving that could be used like a ladder for someone with acrobatic skills, an empty office near the engine room, a corner of the range where they used to practice. "Out of the way spots," Ariadne commented. "Places no one would see him or notice him. He likes to go unnoticed. To see everything without being seen."
"His codename is Hawkeye," Natasha replied, a ghost of a smile haunting her lips.
"Oh? What's yours?"
"Black Widow."
Ariadne blinked in surprise, then took a closer look at her. When she saw the hourglass design on Natasha's belt buckle, she laughed. "You enjoy that, don't you? Playing off the expectations they have of you? Making fools of them."
Lips quirked up into a smile, Natasha gave her a nod. "I would imagine that you enjoy the same thing."
"I'm a petite woman in the male-dominated world of design. I am very good at what I do, and I refuse to be overlooked." She flashed Natasha an almost playful smile. "I can be a bitch if I have to be."
Natasha laughed a little, startled in spite of herself. "Architecture is very difficult field to excel at. If you're working with Arthur, you must be top notch."
"So I hear," Ariadne replied with a half smile. Arthur had taught her what he knew of dream architecture and gave her an overview of its uses and history in scant detail. The rest she had played with on her own when translating the designs in her head to the actual dreams, and she had always suspected there was far more she could do if she wasn't constrained by real world physics. "Have you known him long?"
"There was a job a few years back. I was there in a real world capacity, he was there in a dream world capacity." Natasha shrugged a little, starting to lead her from the range. "When it was clear neither of us were there to kill the other, we started discussing the jobs we were actually there for. They wound up dovetailing rather nicely, actually. Still, I don't think he appreciates knowing what I do for a living."
"A SHIELD agent, you mean?"
"Covert operations mean a great many things," Natasha replied, heading back to the conference room. "It's usually classified."
"I noticed from Agent Barton's file," Ariadne remarked.
"Mine is thicker and has a lot more redacted," Natasha admitted. "This place is not where he would be most comfortable, but there wouldn't be time enough to really show you where he would prefer to go when not on the helicarrier."
"There would be if it was under PASIV," Ariadne pointed out reasonably. "Five minutes can feel like an hour or more in the dream. As long as it doesn't make you sick, I can change the dream around you to shape it to what you remember of the place. I've learned how to keep the more aggressive projections at bay while doing something like that."
Natasha made a detour along the way, though Ariadne was so lost that she didn't even notice it. "This would be perfect for what you need to do."
***
While Natasha and Ariadne were hooked up via PASIV, Agent Sitwell watching over their sleeping bodies, Arthur, Eames and Agent Maria Hill went through the surveillance footage that SHIELD had collected. She was scarily efficient, and didn't have any response to Eames' comment that she was like a female version of Arthur. She kept scrolling through the video footage of Loki's arrival that had been archived to SHIELD's servers. Eames stopped joking when he saw the scepter touch Clint's chest. "Wait, wait. Back that up and turn up the volume, will you? He says something there."
"We won't have any better audio. The original data stream was corrupted soon after the evacuation protocols were put into place."
Eames leaned closer and watched Loki's lips as best as he could. "You have a part? What in the bloody hell does that mean?"
"No idea," Maria replied, keeping frustration from her tone. "He showed up and ten minutes later the entire place fell apart. He next pops up on the radar in Stuttgart, and we don't have a clear lead on where they took Dr. Selvig or any of our men until they came to attack the helicarrier."
She queued up the surveillance footage from the carrier, and Eames tracked all of Clint's movements carefully. "He never once looked into the containment cells to get Loki. That wasn't his aim."
"He didn't go for the armory or the archives, either," Arthur noted.
"It was another distraction, but this time he got caught," Maria told them. "He won't tell us a thing now. That's what you're here for."
"It'll be a bloody miracle," Eames sighed, leaning back in his chair as he caught sight of Clint and Natasha beginning to fight on the screen. "Christ. He's trying to kill her."
"They had worked together out in the field, with one of the highest clearance rates of our agents." Under different circumstances, Maria would have said that with pride. "He's come back from impossible conditions and has always been ready to head back out for more. It didn't matter if we didn't know what he was facing. He was ready to do it."
Eames nodded absently, then looked over at Arthur. "Duty is good as a foundation for bringing it all back, but I'm willing to bet that's what Loki used. You can see it in how he moves there, fighting comrades as if they were enemies. His loyalties shifted to Loki, that part or whatever he was talking about. Distance isn't the key with that scepter, it's the command itself. So if the command was to take part in Loki's plans, then that's the driving force in his mind right now."
"We need to replace that. It really does need to be inception."
"Afraid so."
Maria looked from one to the other, remaining silent as they worked it out. "Director Fury instructed me to help you with whatever you need. Agents you can work with, access to high clearance levels, getting you whatever you need."
"Ariadne's working on the locations, I'm sure," Arthur told Maria. He looked over his notes with a faint air of discontent. "Usually we have months to prepare and gather as much information as possible before attempting something this dangerous. Extracting information on Loki's plans is one thing. That can be done. But to reverse whatever Loki did to him, not even knowing for sure what was done in the first place..." Arthur tapped his pen on his Moleskine, lips compressing unhappily. "I know we'll all do what we can, but I don't want to make any guarantees."
"Nothing is an exact science," Maria told him with a nod. "But whatever of him that you can save, do so. He's a good agent. I know he'd do whatever it took to save anyone else on this carrier if he could. He couldn't, and wouldn't, guarantee a damn thing," she added with a faint smile. "It used to drive Director Fury crazy, but he got results. He brought in rogue agents, talked down the wary, and could drive anyone to drink. His heart was always in the right place. He knew how people worked."
Arthur and Eames stared at Maria. "That's why he was taken, then," Arthur murmured. "Because he would know the people that were necessary for your operation. He would know who would be able to stop him. Take them out of the equation, and who would stop Loki?"
"Right now? Nobody."
"So we have motive as to why he was picked," Eames said, watching the footage on the small screen. "It doesn't give us a good enough handle on how to get him back."
Ariadne and Natasha returned to the conference room at that point, PASIV in hand. "Well, that's where I come in," she told them confidently. "I can at least create locations where he will feel comfortable. With the amount of time we have," she continued, putting the PASIV on the conference room table, "I'm not going to be able to build models or sketches. I will have to do the construction as we go, so by necessity it's got to be a one level job."
"That's not going to work for an inception!" Eames protested. "The idea won't be nuanced enough, won't have the time to really develop or permeate his consciousness."
"I've got the locations," Ariadne repeated, tapping her temple. "And I can build it as fast as we need it and probably without tipping him off that we're in there. What I can probably do is give the appearance of multiple levels."
Arthur stared at her. "Wait. Can you do that?"
"She tried it on me," Natasha offered. "I have no idea what she was doing but it felt rather impressive at the time."
"It's going by half steps, using the dream architecture and symbolism," Ariadne told Arthur, eyes lighting up as she spoke. She was absolutely certain of what she could do, and it showed. "I can make it work."
"But the idea, then," Arthur said, looking to Eames. "It has to be simple enough to grasp in a single level."
"What? Like be your own man?" the forger snarked.
"Why not?" Ariadne asked, pulling out the sketchbook from her abandoned place at the table. She opened it up to a blank page and turned it sideways so that she could use the longer length to demonstrate what she meant. "Here. If I draw it like this to try to show you what I'm thinking of doing..."
Starting at the left hand side of the page, she sketched out a straight line with a few spiky lines attached to the end of it. "We recreate the helicarrier here, damage and the dead, all of it." Natasha and Maria looked at her intently as she drew, not sure where she was going with this. "Then Eames can forge Loki," she continued, ignoring his startled "What now?" as she drew a large circle on her timeline. "This will be the point where I start drawing him down further. It's got to go by half steps, because you'll need me to be continually building and creating the labyrinth as we go. There can't be multiple dreamers for distinct levels."
Ariadne drew a sloping line downward from her circle. "If we stage a secondary attack on the carrier, as if Loki was coming back for him, that's how we can draw him down in a natural way, slide him further and deeper into this dream, using the descent into the helicarrier or a fall of some kind to drop his consciousness."
"Start planting the idea that Loki doesn't want or need him," Eames said, picking up on her intent right away. Arthur took notes in his cramped, cribbed writing, brows furrowing in thought as they spoke.
" Loki has said he's important," Arthur pointed out.
"They're in separate places now. Things could change. Perhaps you could go in first and try to extract what the relationship was like," Ariadne suggested. "But from what I've seen, the kind of person he was, there is no way Loki could have taken him over without a huge whammy of magic."
"Whammy?" Maria asked, lips quirking in spite of herself.
"However you would describe a huge dose," Ariadne returned, grinning. "Because from what I've seen of Natasha's memories and heard about him, that man is even more headstrong than the ones I've worked with, let me tell you."
Arthur snorted, though it was easy to see the smile gracing his lips as he looked up at her. "How else can I keep up with you?"
"Was I talking about you?" she teased back, grinning. She tapped the sketchbook to refocus their attention. "So, there can be a literal drop from the carrier, down someplace. I don't know, pick something. No one knows where Loki is, and he's all but said he split his forces so that he wouldn't know where anything is. I can build something up here," she added squiggle lines to the slope, then drew a line and leveling it out. "This is where we stage a rescue and counter attack by Loki, who will graciously let us take him because he's useless. Or something to that effect. I'll let the master figure that one out."
Eames chuckled and refrained from making a comment, appreciating the planning. She had taken such a backseat during the Fischer job planning stages, absorbing the nuances of dream share. He had done most of the work with the actual inception development, but it seemed as though she had a good feel for people and a knack for plotting.
It was good that she did, in case plans had to be changed on the fly like they were in the Fischer job. They would have only one chance to do this, and only one level to do it in. He didn't know much about Loki's personality, but he could see that the man was charismatic. There was an underlying desperation and rage there, and he would have to channel more of his own personality than usual for this.
"Natasha will have to bring him somewhere safe," Ariadne continued, making her straight line a wavy one. "At least, a place he should feel safe, really driving that point home. Once we get there, we pull him into the dream a little more, like a half step into the layer," she said, drawing her pen down again at an angle. "We could recreate a scenario he has been through before. The thing is to reinforce that no matter what Loki's done with him, he was just being used. He should hate that."
"And if he doesn't?" Arthur asked, curious. She was making this up as she went along, but so far the overall theme seemed to be holding together well.
"We force the choice, then," Ariadne replied, drawing two diverging paths from that point in her timeline. "Here," she said, tapping the straight line, "is where he seems to be responding to the suggestion that he's worthless to Loki and can be his own man. His thoughts should be his own, not someone else's to control. He should have leeway. The underlying theme, if it's worked so far, is that his mind is his own to control."
Ariadne drew over her downward sloping line. "If that isn't working, we take him down another half step, send him somewhere else that should feel safe. Do it again. Keep reinforcing that he's a free agent, has willpower, however you want to refine that concept. While this is technically all one layer of dreaming, I can put in enough nuances and so that this would be the equivalent of three levels in. It should be deep enough to really let the idea take."
"Aside from depth," Eames pointed out, "the concept should resonate well enough with who he used to be that whatever threads of control Loki have are undone. Or at least loosened."
"Should is not the same as will," Arthur pointed out. He turned to Maria. "You'll still need safeguards in case this doesn't work. If we haven't erased Loki's hold on his mind, there's no telling what else we might uncover."
"You're assuming there are traps," Natasha said quietly. She and Maria exchanged a glance. Natasha's was questioning, and Maria nodded. "There are places around the world, different divisions or secret projects. If there are traps laid in, there are always ways to trigger them. Code phrases, particular people."
"You know how it's done, then," Arthur said, watching her closely.
"Yes. I know how they make and remake you, layer on personalities or lifetimes, change who you are and what you know about yourself. It can be done."
"You'd said that earlier," Eames commented. He waited a beat. "It was done to you."
"Repeatedly," Natasha confirmed. "Triggers are multisensory, usually. Pieces of music with code phrases on top of them. Visual cues along with different phrases. Sometimes they use different drugs to help solidify the triggers and personality overlays. There's a science to it, and it's been perfected over many years."
"Then do we have to be careful not to trigger you as we try to untangle Barton's mind?" Arthur asked frankly.
"My mind has been cleared out," Natasha replied with a sharp shake of her head. "I'm myself, and have been for years. I've tried using the old triggers on myself," she continued, ignoring Maria's incredulous look, "and nothing's happened. Most of those lifetimes are still there, lingering like ghosts, but not very clear. I hope the same can be said of Clint's actions."
"I think the framework is sound," Eames told them. He looked to the footage of Loki's initial appearance and attack, the sallow skin and hollow eyes, the way he tripped over his feet and looked almost sick. "I have an idea."
***
***
To Chapter Two - Time To Fly